“Am I fat?”

Body image and confidence can be a struggle at any age.

Impeccable words and explicit attention to building confidence in our children is incredibly important.  We work hard to craft language that helps our children feel strong and healthy, along with encouraging exercise, activity, and healthy habits.

Tears of anguish brought the house down on this topic the other night.

“Am I fat?” was the question because a young man in Kelsey’s class said she was fat and she was deeply upset by his inquiry.

“Of all the challenges I have right now, I do not want fat to be one of them,” was her eloquent expression stunning us right there before bedtime.

Teaching our children kindness and love could never be more imperative in our world.  Helping our children understand to be kind and full of love when someone tells them otherwise is more difficult than we imagined as parents.

Steroids cause a moon face and a puffed look that an eight year old child cannot help but misunderstand.  His comment may have been with ill intent or perhaps it was simply innocent.  Either way, we want our children to love themselves for who they are and never let one feature define the young men and women they will be today or become in the future.

We call her strong and brave.  Of all the challenges she faces, those are the words we hope she sees when she looks in the mirror.

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